


Bad at Love

by CeiphiedKnight



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, actual incest, due to gross misuse of magic, non-con because they're cursed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 22:50:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12567960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeiphiedKnight/pseuds/CeiphiedKnight
Summary: Belle and Rumple have a daughter in the Enchanted Forest, and Regina uses that information to get the most horrific revenge on Mr. Gold. Please mind the rating, tags, and warnings.





	Bad at Love

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in March 2015 and I can't even remember if I posted it anywhere until now. Perhaps my Tumblr, but I'm not sure. Anyway, as I said in the summary, please mind the tags and warnings. This story contains familial incest, and while it's technically consensual and above board as far as everyone being of consenting and legal age, it's still non-con because they're cursed and obviously this wouldn't have happened if they'd been aware.

Belle's screams echoed in the dank dungeon hallways.

She had been laboring for seventeen hours. Regina had fetched a midwife but had otherwise made herself scarce. All of the screaming was giving her a headache.

Finally, blessedly, the baby girl slid free of her mother and landed in the midwife's arms. The cord was cut and then the baby was swept from the cell. Belle sobbed for her, screamed for Rumplestiltskin to come save their daughter, but no one answered. Her arms ached to hold her child, so Belle wept. She rarely allowed herself to show such weakness, but she had just been through so much pain…and she was just so tired…and she felt empty without the baby inside of her…

Regina appeared and used magic to staunch her bleeding. It was the only kindness she had shown, and Belle was certain it was only because she was too valuable a prisoner for Regina to allow her to bleed to death.

"Where is she?" Belle asked through gritted teeth.

Regina smiled her poisonous smile. "That's none of your concern. She will be tended to."

"Tended to?!" Belle snapped, "What the hell does that even mean?!"

Regina's red-lipped smile didn't waver. "It means she'll be raised in the lap of luxury. She'll be like a daughter to me."

"She's MY child!" Belle screamed, lunging at the witch but doubling over in pain before she got within arms reach of her.

With a shake of her head and a "tsk tsk," Regina spun on her heel and left Belle alone in her cell once again.

Alone with her pain, bloodstains and misery.

 

**

Regina entered her chambers and nearly sighed when she saw her father cooing over the baby.

"Daddy," Regina said, gently, "don't get too attached. I'm not sure if I want to keep her as a ward or send her off to the kitchens."

"Darling, she's just a baby," Henry said, looking up at his daughter with pleading eyes, "We should at least train her as a handmaiden or some such thing."

"Hmmmm," Regina purred in the back of her throat, looking at the gurgling bundle. She was probably hungry, and Regina knew nothing of raising children.

"So be it," she finally conceded. "I put you in charge of the girl's upbringing."

Henry beamed. 

Regina left him to it and approached her largest magic mirror.

"What of Rumplestiltskin?" she asked her reflection.

Her face vanished in a swirl of smoke, to be replaced by the bearded face of the former Genie who had made the grave mistake of loving her.

"He's losing his mind, Your Grace," the Genie's voice boomed. "Quite the madman, I daresay. He must have really loved that girl to be consumed by such guilt. The prices of his deals are becoming more…severe. He drinks frequently. He keeps searching for her because there is no grave. There is no body, Your Grace, so he still holds on to hope. I think that hope will be his undoing."

Regina's crimson mouth turned up in a small smile.

"It always is," she said.

**

"Belle," Rumplestiltskin found himself talking to her again. The saying goes that talking to oneself is the first sign of insanity. 

He realizes that he doesn't care.

"I'll find you," he promises to the emptiness of his alchemy lab. "I know that bitch was lying. She lies still. But I'll have the last laugh."

But just as the words escaped his mouth, his latest attempt at a potion to locate True Love exploded in its vial.

Rumplestiltskin overturned a long table in anger, lashing out as he so often did. Then he grabbed his flask and took a long swig of the strongest whiskey he could find within ten kingdoms.

When he drank, it was if he could remember her even more clearly. Her smile, her sweet lips. He had shunned True Love's Kiss, but Belle always chose her own fate. Down in the dungeon, she had stood up to him. She barely reached his shoulders, petite as she was…but in his eyes, she was a giant. 

They hadn't kissed again, but had made love on the cold and dirty ground. It was awkward, for both of them, but also wonderful.

Too wonderful.

If Rumplestiltskin knew one thing, it was that villains didn't get happy endings. And heroes like Belle certainly shouldn't have to be lashed to cowards like him.

So he had told her to go, once more. 

And she had.

But then that lying bitch had come to him and told him that Belle had died, and now he was consumed with the same burning rage that had kept him searching for Baelfire.

But he had made a promise to his boy, first and foremost. And he was getting off track.

Perhaps, if he went back to his original plan, he could be reunited with Belle again, as well.

Feeling a bit more calm, he decided that it was time to rethink this course of action. If no potion could find her anywhere in the world, then perhaps it was time to change the world…

**

Delilah had only just celebrated her first birthday when the curse was cast.

She would never remember that birthday, of course. How Regina had killed her own father, taken his heart for the spell, and then left her with the help so that she could go gloat over the Charmings.

Their babe, a princess, just minutes old, had been sent away. But it didn't matter. 

Though Rumplestiltskin had created the curse in his madness, Regina had made it her own. She had no fear of any Savior coming to break it. And when she awoke in this new world, she had special plans for dear Rumple, Belle, and Delilah...

 

**

"Grandpa, I'm tired of this! I'm going out!"

At nineteen, Moe French's granddaughter was a spitfire, and more than he could handle.

"Lilah!" he called after her. "Please, come back! It's late!"

The teenager ignored him, as she always did, and kept walking out into the cold Storybrooke night.

It was dark, and everything was closed, but Lilah just had to get away.

She was so tired of her grandfather's drinking, and his failing flower business. She was tired of his gambling debts and his stupid rules, too.

She felt like the only person in town who had any damn sense, other than the Mayor.

When she came to the end of Main St. she saw that the lights were still on inside Mr. Gold's pawnshop. With a mental shrug, she ducked inside to get out of the cold.

To say the pawnbroker was surprised to see someone in his shop so late was an understatement. He hadn't even bothered to flip the sign to closed, because no one was usually out at this time of night.

"Can I help you, dear?" he asked, immediately recognizing Moe French's granddaughter.

"Not really," she said, with a flip of her wavy chestnut hair. "You were just the only store open."

Gold studied her and finally said. "Suit yourself."

He went back to his paperwork, and Lilah browsed, quietly.

"Wow," she said, without realizing she'd said it aloud.

Gold moved really quietly for a man with a cane, so he surprised her when he came up behind her and spoke directly into her ear, "see something you like?"

Lilah jumped a bit, but immediately tried to hide it. 

"Maybe," she said with a noncommittal shrug. "Just an old book back here. All leather, looks like it must be a first edition."

Gold reached past her and grabbed the book in question. The leather jacket was blue with gold embossed lettering. 

"Her Handsome Hero," Gold read out loud.

Lilah turned to look at the man, and realized she'd never really looked at him before.

He was taller than she was, but so was almost everyone. Apparently, her mother had been small, but Lilah never knew the woman who had run off and abandoned her when she was just a baby.

Gold's eyes were intense. Dark brown, much like Lilah's, and he seemed to be studying her as well when he asked, "Do you have a handsome hero in mind, then?"

"Maybe," Lilah said, and suddenly realized she had absolutely no idea what was happening. Something was drawing her to the strange, serious man. She would have called it magic, if she'd ever believed in such things.

"Mr. Gold," she found herself saying, "I can't buy the book because I don't have any money. But if I had a job, my own job and not my grandfather's stupid flower shop, then I could buy nice things like this."

"True," Gold said, not exactly sure where the girl was going with this.

"So…do you need any help around here?" Lilah asked, looking around the dim shop. "It's dusty as hell in here…and I'm good with numbers. I could clean and help you with your filing."

Gold considered her for a while before finally saying. "Fine, you have yourself a deal. Part-time only, three days a week. I want you here on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday."

Lilah opened her mouth to dispute Saturday, but Gold held up a hand.

"Those are my terms."

"Fine," Lilah finally agreed.

They shook hands, and she could have sworn it was like a bolt of lightning traveled up her arm at the touch. If Gold felt any such thing, he didn't let on.

"See you soon," he said as she turned and left the shop.

Back out onto the dark street, in the cold, the spell that had seemed to come over Lilah lifted and she shook her head, muttering, "what the hell just happened?"

 

**

 

A year with Mr. Gold had actually proven quite educational.

Lilah had gotten under that cold, steely demeanor of his, just a bit, and she liked it.

And he had started to trust her, finally. He gave her run of the shop on the days he made his rounds collecting rent, when he had never trusted the shop to anyone else before.

Lilah was twenty the night she sat on the glass counter out in front, after closing, and pulled him toward her by the lapels of his expensive suit jacket.

They kissed like fire. They were two flames…incoherent, beautiful, dangerous.

Gold, always so in control, dragged her into the back room where he lowered her down onto an old cot and pressed himself upon her.

"You always take what you want," Lilah whispered, all heat and passion. "So don't stop now."

Gold hiked up her skirt, yanked off her thong, and freed himself from his trousers.

"Don't test me, dear," he said with a bit of a snarl that made Lilah shiver in delight.

He entered her hard and fast, and Lilah arched her back in pleasure at the feel of him.

From then on out, that was always how it was. No warm beds, no sleeping over, no breakfast or good morning kisses. It was always half-clothed and in the shop.

And in secret. Always secret. Because for some reason Gold didn't trust the Mayor, even though Lilah had always found the woman pleasant enough. She also didn't understand what their fucking had to do with the Mayor anyway, but Gold was insistent.

Things went on in Storybrooke, as they always did. 

Very little ever changed.

**

When Lilah was twenty-nine, she was tending the shop when she saw an old yellow bug roll into town. It was rather late, so Gold would be finishing up collecting rent.

From her perspective, nothing seemed amiss…until Gold returned to the shop and saw her.

"Lilah," he said, and he sounded shaken. He sounded like a completely different man.

"Gold, what the hell is wrong with you?" she asked, masking concern with contempt, as was her way. She came around the counter because she honestly thought he was about to pass out. He was pale and had a thin sheen of sweat on his skin.

She reached out to him, but he slapped her hand away. It shouldn't have hurt as much as it did.

"Your mother," Gold finally continued, trying to pull himself together. "Who is your mother?"

Lilah looked at him like he was insane. "Rose French. Everyone knows that. She had me and then dumped me on my grandpa and disappeared. I never really knew her."

Now, Gold was looking at her as if he'd never seen her before. As if they hadn't been associates and then lovers for the past ten years.

He stared into her eyes, then reached out as if to touch her hair, but pulled back at the last second.

"Who," he went on, nearly gasping for air, "is your father?"

Lilah rolled her eyes. "You should know that story, everyone does! My mom got knocked up, never told anyone who the father was, and then skipped town. He was probably some drifter or something. I don't fucking know!"

Then, with no warning whatsoever, Gold flung himself at the door and fell to his knees out on the sidewalk, where he began vomiting. 

"Gold!" Lilah yelled, rushing out to him. 

He held up a hand to stop her advance, though his shoulders still shook with his wreaching.

"Go," he finally snarled, and the word reminded him of something he had said to another chestnut haired beauty, many years earlier.

"I don't understa…"

"GO!" he yelled, unable to even look at her. "You're fired!"

Lilah straightened up, squared her shoulders, and turned and walked away. She wouldn't let him see the tears in her eyes.

Just like her mother.

 

**

Gold did his absolute best to avoid Lilah, but it was a small town. 

He shouldn't have fired Lilah. He shouldn't have broken down.

Fuck he knew better than that. 

Ever since it had happened, Regina had been walking around like the cat that ate the canary. 

She couldn't know for sure, of course. But the scene he had caused that night after meeting Emma Swan had certainly tipped off the Evil Queen.

She'd be after him, now. It was only a matter of time.

With Emma's arrival, everything had changed. There were a few things he knew with certainty, now.

Belle was either still alive, or had been alive long enough to deliver a child.

Their child.

Lilah, or whatever her real name was, aged even though no one else in town did, aside from Henry who was not from the Enchanted Forest.

And, most assuredly, Rumplestiltskin knew that Regina had done it on purpose. She had done it to punish him. 

Because of him, Belle was gone. Because she had loved him.

Because of him, his daughter had grown up with no parents. 

But because of Regina his daughter had been cursed to grow up alone in the cursed town, with a drunken grandfather and no hope.

Because of Regina something had driven Lilah into his arms. Whether it was written within the curse because the evil bitch thought it would be amusing, or whether it happened simply due to their cursed personalities, it didn't change the fact that now, when the curse broke, he would have to face up to what he'd done.

And the curse had to break, because he had another child that he had find. He had another child whose life he had destroyed.

He would never be able to make amends to Lilah. Not ever. But perhaps, with time, he would be able to make it up to Bae.

Alone, in the back of his shop, Rumplestiltskin sank down to the floor and sobbed.

He would make Regina pay.

**

 

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Gold?"

"Yes I am, but I'm afraid the shop's closed…"

Rumple's thought completely jumped the track as he turned and faced a ghost from his past.

"I was told to find you," she went on as he came around the counter, "and tell you that Regina locked me up."

He reached out and touched her. She was real. She was alive.

"I was told you'd…protect me?" Belle said, turning the statement into a question.

He pulled her into a warm hug while trying not to fall apart. 

"Oh, yes," he said. "Yes, I'll protect you."

 

**

They were almost to the well when the curse broke.

"Rumplestiltskin," she said from behind him. "Wait."

He turned, frightened. She had every right to hate him.

"I remember," she said, a bit nervously. "I…I love you."

For the second time he pulled her into his arms and said, "Yes, yes…and I love you, too."

Belle pulled back a bit, tears glistening in her eyes.

"Rumple," she said. "We have to find our daughter."

His stomach dropped.

"Daughter?" he let the question hang in the air.

Belle's eyes turned glassy as she explained, "That last night I was at the Dark Castle…I got pregnant. I was on my way back to you when Regina found me. She locked me up in her tower and took the baby away. I have no idea who she is here, but I'm afraid that Regina may have raised her…"

Rumple held up a hand to stop her and said, "I can assure you, Regina hasn't had her since the curse was cast. Your father raised her."

Belle's face lit up, though tears slid down her cheeks. "That's wonderful! She's had family here! We'll have to find her…"

"We can discuss that next," Rumple interrupted her. "But first, there's something I must do."

He turned away, and Belle found herself wondering why he was not more excited at the prospect of having a child after so long.

Curious, she followed him farther into the woods.

 

**

Delilah had a basic understanding of what had happened.

Magic was real. They were all from some sort of fairytale land.

But she had no memory of that.

Her grandfather had looked at her with suspicion. Was he even really her grandfather?

Neither of them knew.

"My daughter," Sir Maurice explained, "vanished after agreeing to a deal with the Dark One. She went with him to live as a caretaker, but I suspected there was more to it than that."

"I'm sorry," Delilah said. "The Dark One?"

"Rumplestiltskin," Maurice spat the name as if it were a foul word.

"Who is he here?" Delilah asked the man who might actually be her grandfather, as a sinking feeling began to come over her.

"Gold," Maurice said, making that name sound like an expletive, as well.

"Excuse me," Delilah said, very suddenly.

She ran to the bathroom and threw up her breakfast.

Sir Maurice really had a daughter named Belle. Belle had gone with Gold…Rumplestiltskin…and Delilah's Storybrooke memories, the only memories she had, told her that Maurice's daughter was her mother.

But there was one thing, far less sickening and easier to deal with, that didn't make sense.

"Time stopped for everyone," Delilah said, slowly walking back into the kitchen while wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "But not me. I didn't notice that things never changed, but I still grew up. Why?"

"That I don't know," Maurice said. "But it was probably his doing."

"Gold?" Delilah said, nearly choking on the word.

Maurice nodded.

"You really hate him."

Maurice did not confirm nor deny that statement.

Grabbing a jacket, Delilah rushed through the small house and out the door.

"Where are you going?!" Maurice called after her.

"There's someone I have to see!" Delilah called back over her shoulder.

As much as it hurt. As much as it made her stomach churn…she had to know.

**

"Let me find you some clothes," Rumple said to Belle once they were safely inside his shop. "You've been in these rags for too long."

Belle smiled her appreciation as she watched her True Love head into the back of the shop.

She was nearly toppled moments later when a woman with messy brown curls slammed open the shop's door.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said to the blue-eyed woman standing just inside the door. "I was looking for someone."

Rumple heard her.

She was there, in the shop. With Belle. He slumped against the nearest wall and slid down as if his legs would no longer even support him.

"And who might you be?" the pretty blue-eyed woman asked.

"I'm Delilah," said the slightly older woman. "And you are?"

"Belle," she said with a smile.

Delilah's jaw dropped.

"Belle?" she repeated.

"Yes," Belle's eyebrows knit together as she looked at the woman. Her eyes seemed familiar. "Do I know you?"

"No," Delilah replied. "No, you don't."

Rumple finally found the courage, somehow, to come out of the back room.

No matter what they had done while they were cursed, Belle had the right to know her daughter.

"Belle," Rumple said, not quite able to look at either of the women standing before him, "this is Delilah. She's our daughter."

Belle's head turned with almost comical speed to look at the woman again.

They were about the same height. Delilah had her hair, and Rumple's eyes. Her nose, and Rumple's chin.

"Yes, of course," Belle whispered, standing right in front of Delilah and reaching out to touch her, as if she were an apparition. 

Then she pulled the woman into her arms.

Delilah broke down. She began sobbing as she and Belle both sank to the ground.

Rumple wanted to be a part of this reunion so badly, but he had no right.

He also had no right to interrupt it…but he had to.

"Belle," he said, and sky-blue eyes looked up at him, full of tears.

"There's something you must know," he plunged ahead. "Regina has done something…terrible. More terrible than you can even imagine." 

"More terrible than locking me up for thirty years?" Belle asked, still clutching Delilah.

It was Delilah who finally looked up and made eye-contact with her father as he whispered, "Oh, yes."


End file.
